Spartacus Chetwynd, Hamish Fulton, Gelitin, Jonathan Monk, Adrian Piper, Javier Tellez

May 1-June 2, 2007
Manhattan and Coney Island
Image Courtesy Creative Time

An international group of performers and young artists took over New York City’s streets, Coney Island’s beach, and even the foreheads of hundreds of New Yorkers throughout May 2007. The exhibition featured projects by Adrian Piper, who initiated an open call for volunteers to imprint the text “Everything will be taken away” on their foreheads in henna for two weeks, while the four-man group Gelitin simply dug a giant hole in the beach on Coney Island for seven days. Jonathan Monk restaged a new version of Daniel Buren’s 1975 performance Seven Ballets In Manhattan; Hamish Fulton created a “walk”—his first in New York City; Javier Tellez organized a street protest with hundreds of wind-up toy robots carrying placards written by children and mental health patients; and Spartacus Chetwynd, with a team of four others from England, developed improvisational interventions responding to the architecture throughout New York City and Coney Island. Utilizing a range of media and humor, with a nod to legendary earth works and endurance projects of the 1970s, Six Actions for New York City effectively created provocative pedestrian projects that enlivened the city with an art practice that remains inherently experimental and challenging.